Creating a fantasy character maquette is a multi-stage process that goes from creating 2D concept sketches, making smart decisions while translating those ideas into 3D sculptural elements, and creating texture and detail in your finished sculpture. Maquettes like these are used to pitch concepts for movies and video games, as small scale versions of much larger sculptures, or can be taken to completion as finished statues.

Jessica Dru drapes fabric that will be dipped in Cx5s to form a self supporting cape.

I had a great time working with Jessica Dru again, and this time she not only posed as a live model, but also collaborated with me on the final design of the character. Jessica's professional work as a costume designer was a great asset, and together we explain why sculptural decisions at the maquette stage are so important to the overall success of the character.

So what character did we create together? A dragon fighter with a huge free flowing cape and dragon scale armor, which gave us lots of opportunities to explore fabric dipping and cloth forming, sculpting delicate clothing folds, and creating texturally rich armor, hair and boots.

I also explore the fundamentals of head sculpting, and though we don't get into portrait sculpting in this video, I do go over all the basics that I use when creating face shapes, using hot-sculpting techniques in Cx5s.

Since Cx5s is a sculpting material with very unique properties, this video is a perfect in-depth guide to creating detail and delicate forms using waxer techniques, hot-sculpting, hot-sanding and solvent. I show the finishing techniques I use to get smooth, even surfaces, and convincing overlays of clothing over skin, as well as some tricks for duplicating sculpted forms quickly and easily.

Join us for a full day's worth of sculpting tips, tricks, techniques and strategies in Cx5s!